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Iran Demands Removal of IAEA Surveillance Equipment
Iran has demanded the removal of all International Atomic Energy Agency cameras and seals by the end of next week from the country’s nuclear facilities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 6). Robert Joseph, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, said yesterday that Iran used negotiations with the European Union to buy time to further its nuclear program. “I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them,” he said. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran if it fails to obey U.N. resolutions and arms agreements. “Diplomatic and economic confrontations are preferable to military ones,” he said. He also cautioned that “in the field of nonproliferation, decisions delayed over the course of months and years may be as harmful as no decisions at all” (George Jahn, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 7). The White House condemned Tehran’s decision to resume enrichment activities, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. “The international community has spelled out very clearly the steps that the regime needs to take, and so far all we see is continued threats and confrontation rather than diplomacy and cooperation,” said spokesman Scott McClellan (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Feb. 6). A top U.S. diplomat said yesterday that Washington would consider sanctions of its own if the United Nations does not take action against Iran, AFP reported. “We may get to the stage where we would agree in the U.N. on sanctions to apply to Iran,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Kurt Volker. “If the U.N. doesn’t do that, I think we will face questions about, well, what do we do, because it is a very serious threat,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Feb. 6). The United States and the European Union plan to seek “targeted sanctions” if the standoff cannot be resolved, experts told AFP yesterday. “The United States really seems to want to try this idea of first banning the travel of Iranians in the nuclear program and then in the leadership,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. One European diplomat confirmed that France, Germany and the United Kingdom had the same idea. The United States plans to propose a four-stage approach in the Security Council, said one Western diplomat. It would first push for a statement asking Iran to suspend nuclear fuel work and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The second stage would involve a resolution “invoking Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter which gives the council the legal authority to require member states to take specific actions,” the diplomat said. If Iran fails to comply, the third stage would involve sanctions “targeted only on Iran’s nuclear program and the regime’s leadership,” the diplomat said. Top Iranian leaders and nuclear scientists could be barred from leaving their country, while Iran’s atomic energy agency could find its foreign bank accounts frozen. The fourth stage would consist of “wider economic sanctions on Iran, such as cutting off imports, cutting off all financial transactions,” the diplomat said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, Feb. 6). The United States would consider the use of military force against Iran, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “All options, including the military one, are on the table,” Rumsfeld said in an interview published yesterday in the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, AFP reported. “Today, biological, chemical and radiological weapons are available which could kill tens of thousands of people,” he said. “There is a genuine possibility that these weapons could fall into the hands of people who behead innocent people and blow up children.” “The people of the free world must realize that they have been warned,” Rumsfeld said (Agence France-Presse III/Yahoo!News, Feb. 6). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for renewed talks with Iran, AP reported today. “It is important not to make guesses about what will happen and even more important not to make threats,” he said (Jahn, Associated Press, Feb. 7). Experts have said the U.S. military could destroy Iran’s dozen identified nuclear installations fairly quickly, the London Times reported today. Former U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Sam Gardiner said such an operation could be completed in less than a week, but that Iran could then retaliate against Israel or U.S. military targets in the region. “Once you have dealt with the nuclear sites you would have to expand the targets,” Gardiner said. “There are another 125 to deal with including chemical plants, missile launchers, airfields and submarines.” Iran could also retaliate via groups such as Hezbollah and the Lebanese Shia militia, and militant Iraqi Shia religious leader Moqtadr al-Sadr, the Times reported. “An air strike against the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan would inflame Muslim anger, rally the Iranian public around an otherwise unpopular government,” said Joseph Cirincione, nonproliferation director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It will have to be diplomats, not F-15s that stop the mullahs,” he said (Richard Beeston, The Times, Feb. 7). China voted to report Iran to the Security Council in hopes that the move would spur diplomacy, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said today. “There are severe difficulties and complex circumstances, but nonetheless we still believe there’s still space to appropriately resolve the Iran nuclear issue through negotiations,” he said (Chris Buckley, Reuters, Feb. 7). Israel’s ambassador to the United States yesterday said that he believed the standoff could still be resolved through diplomatic efforts, Reuters reported. “This notion that the situation is predestined or cannot be stopped ... it’s not true. They have not crossed the point of no return. ... They don’t have all the know-how and equipment they need,” Daniel Ayalon said. Ayalon also ruled out the possibility that Israel would sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, thereby opening its atomic facilities to international inspections. “Israel is still not in the position to give up any of its deterrence ... (or) ambiguity because we are still being challenged by so many countries,” he said (Carol Giacomo, Reuters, Feb. 7).
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